4th of August

Intern Shareef's Blog #38:

  ACAPULCO!!! So we headed to Acapulco at midnight on what is technically saturday. So we got on our bus for 5 hours. We slept most of the time so it wasn't bad at all. After we got off the bus we walked down to this big street and walked for a long time. It was not fun with a heavy backpack on and we weren't 100% where our hotel was. So we went to a Starbucks down the street so we could use their internet and find how far we were. It turned out that our hotel was just 1 block away. So we headed to the hotel and since it was 6 o'clock in the morning we couldn't check in to our hotel. So we still got to go have breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel and we laid by the pool and watched the waves pass by, as well as all of the crabs on the rocks. It was so beautiful, soon after writing my blog we dropped our stuff off with the front desk and headed to the beach. When we got there the sand was not really sand but a whole bunch of shells crushed down to little tiny minerals. It was nice at the beach because I was able to get in the water and it was warm. It was also a lot of fun because I could do this with my uncle and he and I had a lot of fun with the big waves. This is pretty much what we did all day and the next, but the night in Acapulco my uncle took me to go see the cliff divers. It was amazing how high they jumped off and even a few little kids did it but they only jumped off like 1/3rd of what the adult divers did but it was still really high and impressive for little kids. In Acapulco we took the bus around and they were all so cool, especially because each of them had a theme for example we went on a Looney Tunes bus and Bob Marley bus. It was filled with paintings of the theme on the inside and outside of the bus. On the inside they also had disco lights and loud speakers, so it was kind of like a party bus. On sunday we also were on the beach for awhile and then we left back to D.F at 2:00. 

  The ride back was so long instead of it being a 5 hour drive it was a 7 and a half hour ride. It was so exhausting. I was awake pretty much the whole time too (except for 1 hour.) So we tried to keep busy by watching the movies (in spanish) and I watched one movie (Robots, which is a cartoon) and two first parts of two different movies (Percy Jackson and Life of Pi) I probably would have watched the rest of those movies but I wanted to watch them in english when I got back home so I didn't want them ruined for me. When we got home I talked to my family and then at 11:00pm my uncle and I went to eat our final dinner together for Mexico summer of 2014. We got Quesadillas and brought them home. The salsa we got on the side was green salsa and ended up being super spicy for me which is so weird because I didn't have any problems all summer with spicy foods until now. It was so good though so I kept putting on big portions of the salsa on my Quesadilla. After that we headed to bed.

  This morning I woke up and started on my final blog (sort of.) Well I have learned a lot from Mexico and I am not sure yet how I will react going back to the States. So wish me luck, I am so happy to have had this experience this summer, and so very fortunate because not very many 15 year olds can do this. I had probably the best summer of my life so far out here and it hurts to say goodbye. I am just so happy I was able to do this with my awesome uncle. I hope I may be able to return again one day, and if you want to read my new blog here is the link:

http://thediariesofacolombianafghan.blogspot.com

  I am going to be writing about my overall experience of Mexico and what it is like to have reverse culture shock as I return. I hope you will enjoy!

- Shareef

2nd of August, 2014

Intern Shareef's Blog #37:

THIS CRAZY UNCLE OF MINE IS MAKING ME BLOG BEFORE I CAN GO ENJOY THIS BEAUTIFUL OCEAN IN ACAPULCO RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOTEL THAT HAS TWO AWESOME POOLS!

  I am going to be writing for yesterday because I was not able to blog and tonight I will write for today. Well yesterday was the final day of the Immersion program. It was really weird going in to today knowing it was the last day. It started off with me being able to sleep in and so we were able to head to work later. Not because I slept in but because I din't have spanish or anything so we were able to sleep in and head to school at 10:00. When we arrived I started on my slideshow that I created of this year's Immersion program. I worked on that for while and then my uncle had to leave to do some therapy work. So I ended up working on that for almost 2 hours and then I headed out with the language school director to the metro stop. There we met the students to head out to this place called the Ciudadela. It is one huge block (street block) that is full of artesian goods and souvenirs and such. There I was able to get some cool stuff for my friends and family. We stayed there for two hours and I was able to hang out with the students. I was really sad that it was one of my last chances to hang out with them. I have grown so close to all of them so it was really hard. 

  After shopping we went back and I got some photos developed for my uncle so he can hang them up. It took a super long time so by the time I was done he was barely finishing his work. So during that little time before he came back I was able to make him a thank you card with a picture of him and I on the front. So now he doesn't only have stuff on his fridge from my sister and cousins. Now I get to be on the wonderful fridge of excellence. After giving him his gifts we went out for a walk to the travel agency type thing and we were able to purchase our tickets for Acapulco. When we were done we only had enough time to head home get changed then go to their hotel to wait for the Taxi's. So we did just that. When we got to the hotel we had to wait a little long for the Taxi's. It was a really nice dinner though because everybody was dressed up all fancy for the final dinner. When we got there they had Mariachi's playing and a whole bunch of funny signs all over. I really enjoyed my time being with them and the food was really good so it made the night even better. After dinner we sat and talked and took pictures and got some really good dessert. It was such a great night, but it was so hard in the end to leave everyone because like I said before I have grown so close to these people and I spent everyday with them for 5 weeks and pretty much all day. I love them all so much and I am so very fortunate to have been apart of this program this year. I am so happy I met all of these wonderful people and I was able to have this experience. I hope I will be able to see all of them again because even though some of them are like 10 years older than me they are still my friends. They have made this experience so great for me and I just want to say Amanda, Cindy, David, Jenni, Jose, Kortney, Leticia, Miranda, Monte, Sarah, Sofia, Susan, Vania, and my uncle Jason, I love you all and I am so happy I got to spend my summer with you. This was an unforgettable summer and I hope I will be seeing you all again!